Air Transport Law and Policy in the 1990s edited by Pablo Mendes De Leon

Abstract

Air Transport Law and Policy in the 1990s, edited by Pablo Mendes De Leon Published by Martinus Nijhoff, Dordrecht, The Netherlands. (1991, XIV and 160pp incl. Preface, Foreword, List of Acronyms, and Abbreviations ). Hardback. Price £45(UK);75USD; Dfl.135. The need for promptness in publishing a book of conference papers could hardly be better demonstrated than by this collection. Based on the premise that the 1990s would be ‘boom’ time for air transport, publication has coincided with the passing of 1991, the year in which world air travel declined by four per cent (no doubt considerably affected by the Gulf war), the first fall in 40 years. This makes the theme or sub-title ‘controlling the boom’ something of a hostage to fortunes which only the next eight years will reveal. Even leaving aside the unwelcome outcome of 1991, as one of the contributors notes (p. 19) ‘Exploiting the boom’ would have better captured the flavour of the opportunities expected in the 1990s, particularly as one of the book's objectives seems to be to home in on developments necessary to accommodate the boom. It would perhaps be wrong to criticise inclusion of ‘law’ in the title on the ground that law is little touched on in the book. For law is the substratum of the present regime and the vehicle for its possible change. Nevertheless for a lawyer this book could only be very much background reading, giving some of the context in which policy is developing. It would also be important in the eyes of a lawyer to achieve greater accuracy than seems to have been thought necessary in giving an overview of law and policy. This is not …